Started Date

Completion Date

Goal Amount

Raised Amount

Categories

(Provision of basic information about breast cancer & teaching breast self exam on a hand held model to small groups less than 5 in number)

Aims

To continue our project Pudhuvasantham through the support of AID

To reach 1 lakh women in period of 3 years

To work from the 3 nodes of the Trust, Chennai , Coimbatore & Mumbai

To reach women all across India , predominantly in the state of Tamil Nadu & Maharashtra

To reach women in urban , semi urban , rural & tribal areas

The Pudhuvasantham Project involved in talking to small group of women ( less than 5 ) or preferably talking to ladies on a one to one basis. A group of 25 women were trained for this. They were given standardized content and the session was condensed to 15 minutes which included a separate 5 minute demo on breast self exam. At the end of the session, the educated lady had to demonstrate to the educator breast self exam on the model and also answer 10 questions( covered the minimum info that they had to remember ) . The mistakes both in technique of breast self exam and the 10 questions were corrected.

There was a great response to this method. In the 30 months beginning Oct 2008 ,37,000 women were educated! This was a phenomenal number considering that it was one to one, 95 times out of hundred. The response was very good, but the momentum couldn’t be kept up as volunteer enthusiasm dampened over time. It slowed down but it continued. The standard method of lec dem for large groups also continued.

In 2015 July for the first time in the history of trust Pudhuvasantham decided to enroll paid educators for this program. Breast cancer awareness had improved tremendously since 1998 when Pudhuvasantham began, yet the numbers of women with advanced cases hadn’t dropped significantly. Even in June 2015 more than 80 % of women detected to have breast cancer were in stage III or IV . This is across India. Hence to step up awareness and overcome the shortage of volunteers Pudhuvasantham decided to rope in paid educators.

In Aug 2015 Pudhuvasantham had 12 ladies who were well trained to conduct this short session and they went to the field to create awareness. By March 2016 this group has covered close to 20,000 women around Chennai & Coimbatore.

Asha-Jyothi Conducted a Sports meet in Huzurnagar where over 3000 Students from about 100 schools participated. Competitions in Kabaddi,Volleyball,Kho-Kho, Running,Long Jump,Shot put,Essay Writing Contest,Drawing ,Singing etc were conducted. Food, Transportation and Prizes were given. This is a first of a kind Sports meet to bring more Physical awareness in Children.

Pudhuvasantham website gives you more information about the project and the progress is mentioned in our Action in Chennai link.